Hopeful,
You are quite right about the risk of cardiotoxicity of Herceptin which was probably under reported in the phase 3 clinical trials published in 2005 (as a result of the preselection of patients without cardiovascular problems at baseline).
However some patients,among them some members of this forum, have been on Herceptin for up to 8 years.
So if the drug can be tolerated by some, they may even continue taking it after progression if it shows they can still benefit from it as found possible in these links I posted in an other thread dealing with the pros & cons:
The links below relate to the medical argumentation for or against continued Herceptin treatment after progression. It should be noted that the commentaries were made at different dates. So it is possible some of their authors might have changed their mind to some extent with advancing knowledge.
FOR:
http://www.abstracts2view.com/sabcs...S06L_1099&terms=
[2064] Favourable effect of continued trastuzumab treatment in metastatic breast cancer patients: results from the French Hermine cohort study. SABCS Dec 2006
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...l=pubmed_docsum
Safety of treatment of metastatic breast cancer with trastuzumab beyond disease progression
J Clin Oncol. 2004 Mar 15
One of the researchers of this paper is no other than DJ Slamon the inventor of Herceptin.
AGAINST:
http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/full/23/12/2868
CORRESPONDENCE In Reply: Gabriel N. Hortobagyi
Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 23, No 12 (April 20), 2005
The author is one of the Herceptin clinical trial investigators
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress....t/full/11/4/318 april 2006
Outcome of Patients with HER2-Positive Advanced Breast Cancer Progressing During Trastuzumab-Based Therapy